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THE 
JEWISH COMMUNITY 

OF 

NEW YORK CITY 



BY 



J. L. MAGNES 



NEW YORK 
1909 



THE 
JEWISH COMMUNITY 

OF 

NEW YORK CITY 



BY 



J. L. MAGNES 



NEW YORK 
1909 



f ( ^0 






THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF 
NEW YORK CITY 

BY J. L. Magnes 

This ;iieeting has been called as the result 
of many meetings which had as their aim the 
formation of a Jewish Community of New 
York City. When Police Commissioner Bing- 
ham made the statement, which he afterwards 
retracted, that the Jews contribute 50 per cent, 
of the criminals of New York City, many meet- 
ings were held by Jewish organizations and 
indignant protests were made. Any number 
of plans for redress were proposed. Many of 
these plans bordered on the absurd. Some 
suggested that we march to the City Hall in 
overwhelming numbers and demand of the 
Mayor the head of his Police Commissioner. 
Others proposed that a political organization be 
formed for the one purpose of supporting that 
political party which would demand the re- 
moval of the Commissioner. Many a speech 



An address delivered at the opening of the Constituent Con- 
vention of the Jewish Community of New York City on Saturday, 
February 27, 1909, at the Hebrew Charities Building. 



was delivered, and many kinds of conferences 
in various parts of the city were held. The 
whole movement of indignation seems to have 
been crystallized in those conferences held at 
Clinton Hall on October 11th and 12th, 1908, 
and now known as the Clinton Hall Conference. 
The discussion at that Conference was long and 
earnest and interesting. It was shown that the 
Jews were capable of righteous indignation and 
that this indignation might be followed by 
decisive action on their part. It was the sense 
of the Clinton Hall Conference that an attempt 
be made to form a central organization of the 
Jews of New York City. A Committee of 
Twenty-five was appointed with authority to 
consult with other organizations looking to the 
creation of what might be known as The Jewish 
Community of New York City. The proceed- 
ings of the Clinton Hall Conference were fol- 
lowed with eagerness by large sections of the 
Jewish population, and the result of its de- 
liberations was hailed with general satisfaction. 
The Committee of Twenty-five, after several 
sessions, found it to be its duty to consult with 
the American Jewish Committee. The reasons 
for this determination were these: First, The 
American Jewish Committee was in existence 
and had been organized for similar purposes. 
Second, the Clinton Hall Conference was rep- 
resentative particularly of "downtown" ; whereas 



the American Jewish Committee, while it con- 
tained many "downtown" Jews, also contained 
a very good representation of the "uptown" 
Jews. Third, the American Jewish Committee 
was not only a local organization but also a na- 
tional organization, with a constituency through- 
out the United States. Relationship with the 
American Jewish Committee might therefore 
give the Jews of New York City some voice in 
shaping not only local Jewish policies, but also 
the policy of Jews throughout the land; and, 
by reason of the international connections of 
the American Jewish Committee, some voice 
also in fashioning the policy of international 
Jewry. 

A short sketch of the democratic movement 
that led to the organization of the American 
Jewish Committee would now seem to be in 
place, especially because this Convention is, I 
think, but the last phase of this democratic 
movement in Jewry. In the year 1905, as a 
result of the Russian massacres, two organiza- 
tions were formed in this country. The one, 
the Committee for the Relief of Sufferers by 
Russian Massacres, was effective in raising over 
a million dollars for the relief of our persecuted 
brethren in Russia. The other organization, 
the Jewish Defence Association, succeeded in 
raising a considerable sum to be used by our 
brethren in Russia for their own defence. The 



Jewish Defence Association began an agitation 
also on behalf of what was then characterized 
as an American Jewish Congress. The leaders 
of the Relief Committee too had begun to feel 
the necessity of an organization to take the 
place of individual effort and to relieve the 
individual of too much responsibility. The 
prime movers in the creation of an American 
Jewish Congress accordingly believed it to be 
their duty to give up their own plan, and to 
labor for the creation of a general organization. 
This eventually became the American Jewish 
Committee. 

The American Jewish Committee was 
constituted in this Hebrew Charities Build- 
ing. A plan of organization along completely 
democratic lines was discussed, but after earn- 
est consideration, rejected as, for the present, 
unfeasible. It has been held by many that 
the American Jewish Committee does not rep- 
resent the Jews whom it pretended to rep- 
resent, because it had no mandate from the 
people. Those who passed this criticism on 
the Committee were willing to admit that were 
a plebiscite to be had, the mass of the Jewish 
people would approve the selection of perhaps 
most of the men now constituting the American 
Jewish Committee. It was granted also by the 
critics of the Committee that the men consti- 
tuting that Committee had taken upon them- 



selves the burden of its work not for|^any per- 
sonal aggrandizement, but because the work 
had to be done and it seemed there was no 
organization to do it. Nevertheless, the fact 
remained that the Committee was self-consti- 
tuted, and no one was more alive to the justice 
of this charge than the members of the Ameri- 
can Jewish Committee themselves. An attempt 
was therefore made by the American Jewish 
Committee to democratize itself by creating 
large Advisory Councils which were to elect the 
members of the general Committee. 

While the plan of the Advisory Councils 
was being put into effect, the Bingham incident 
occurred, the Clinton Hall Conference was held, 
and the Committee of Twenty-five was ap- 
pointed. This Committee of Twenty-five and 
the New York City members of the American 
Jewish Committee met frequently in confer- 
ence. The result of their conferences was the 
call which was signed jointly by the members 
of the Committee of Twenty-five and the New 
York members of the American Jewish Com- 
mittee. And this call has brought you here 
for the purpose of forming the Jewish Com- 
munity of New York City. 

The question now remains to be answered 
as to what the Jewish Community of New 
York City should be organized for. The Jews of 
New York City have a twofold problem. We 



have what might be called our external problem 
and our internal problem. Our external prob- 
lem concerns our relationship with the outside 
community of which we form a part. Not long 
ago, there was a great uproar about the singing 
of Christmas songs in the public schools. That 
is but an instance of the many problems which 
concern us as a community in our relations 
with our non- Jewish fellow citizens, and to 
solve which, it is necessary that there be among 
the Jews some properly constituted authority. 
At the present time, however, there is no rep- 
resentative, authoritative, permanent organiza- 
tion that dare speak for the Jewish people. 
Any individual or any organization can claim 
to be the spokesman of the Jews and as a result 
there is confusion worse confounded. If, how- 
ever, a representative, well-organized community 
were in existence, the Jews would know whom 
to regard as their spokesman and the non- 
Jewish world would know to whom to listen. 
But for such an organization to possess the 
authority to deal with external problems, it 
must receive its mandate from the Jewish 
people at large. 

We have, furthermore, our internal problem. 
This is, to my mind, the more important, for 
it concerns the development of our inner life 
as Jews. Nothing Jewish should be foreign to 
a Jewish Community of New York City. There 



are, for example, hundreds of synagogues of 
various shades of observance and beHef . Where- 
as the Jewish Community should have no right 
to interfere with the autonomy of any of these 
synagogues or of any other organization, it 
ought to be able to suggest to the orthodox 
synagogues that they organize themselves into 
a union for the purpose of furthering the cause 
of Judaism, and to the reformed synagogues 
that they form a union for the same purpose. 
There are also questions of Schechita, of Milah, 
of marriage and divorce, of the mush-room 
synagogues that spring up at the time of the 
high holidays. The Jewish Community should 
endeavor to have Boards created for the regu- 
lation of all such questions and for the proper 
conduct of all these and similar activities. On 
these Boards, only such men should sit as have 
rabbinic authority, and as will be recognized 
by the mass of the people as possessing such 
authority. Any difficulties, moreover, that syn- 
agogues may encounter, might be brought be- 
fore the proper Board for adjustment, and 
when new synagogues are to be established, 
advice and help in many directions might be 
secured from the Community. 

We have, furthermore, the question of Jew- 
ish education. Thousands of dollars and bound- 
less energy and affection are expended each 
year on the education of the Jewish child, but 



it may be said that we have no Jewish educa- 
tional system. Some schools are good, some 
are not. What the Community might do is, 
for example, to help such a movement as is 
now beginning to develop, that of forming a 
Board of Jewish Education and of employing 
a Superintendent of Instruction. This would 
be instrumental in introducing something like 
a uniform system into the various Jewish schools 
of this city, and of improving their teaching 
methods. It would help to correct many abuses 
practiced by unlicensed and incompetent private 
schools and teachers. It would also show the 
necessity for additional schools for thousands 
of Jewish children who now are wilHng to go to 
a Jewish school but who find no schools to 
receive them. 

We have also charitable and social problems 
which an effective Community might help to 
solve. In this building, for instance, the United 
Hebrew Charities is housed. Each year, this 
institution complains that it is not supported 
as it ought to be. It is thus with other worthy 
institutions. This lack of support is, in some 
measure, due to the absence of a way to reach 
the masses of the people themselves. The 
Jewish masses are perhaps the most charitable 
of people. Their many independent benevolent 
societies might be induced by the Community 
to form a union of benevolent societies. Fur- 

10 



thermore, if the Community is really represen- 
tative of the whole people it could reach the 
people on behalf of a worthy cause more quickly 
than any other agency might. Perhaps, also, 
we may eventually devise some means of col- 
lecting a per capita tax from the whole Jewish 
population, in order to meet the needs of our 
charitable organizations. It may, also, be pos- 
sible to create sentiment in favor of the creation 
of an Employment Bureau, a Committee on 
Conciliation between employer and employee, 
and other such agencies. This beautiful build- 
ing, moreover, or some other such building, 
might be made into a Beth Am, the Jewish 
Communal House, and here Jewish communal 
activities might find a center. Communal or- 
ganizations might have their offices here and 
this auditorium might be used for occasions of 
interest to the Community or its constituent 
parts. 

All of this is dependent upon the creation 
of a Jewish public opinion. There is no such 
thing at present, and a central organization 
like that of the Jewish Community of New 
York City is necessary to create a Jewish public 
opinion. Here the various tendencies within 
New York Judaism may find a meeting ground 
and an organ through which to express them- 
selves. And it may be that by means of a 
Jewish public opinion, Jewish institutions will 

11 



adopt a policy in conformity with the expressed 
wishes of the Community. 

Much of this work has as its pre-requisite 
the gathering of Jewish statistics. Who are we 
and what are we? How many and of what 
nature are our synagogues, our schools, our 
charitable institutions, our lodges and our so- 
cieties? Who are our criminals, what our 
communal needs ? We seem to be a community 
of over a million souls, the largest Jewish com- 
munity in the world, but we are hardly cog- 
nizant of what we possess or what we require. 

If we organize this Community together 
with the American Jewish Committee, we shall 
be able so to influence the American Jewish 
Committee as to make it entirely democratic. 
Communities similar to ours will be formed in 
Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleve- 
land and other large cities. Then, not only the 
local Community but the national organization 
of which it is a part will be democratic, repre- 
sentative, authoritative. As a result, as I said 
before, each local Community will have a voice 
in shaping not alone its own policy but that 
also of Jewry and Judaism throughout the land, 
and perhaps, throughout the world. 

But one word more. If we organize the 
Jewish Community of New York City, it will 
in some measure, be a realization of the words 
we are inclined so often to use: Chaverim Kol 

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Yisroel, All Israel are brothers. It will wipe 
out invidious distinctions between East Eu- 
ropean and West European, foreigner and na- 
tive, "uptown" Jew and * 'downtown" Jew, rich 
and poor, and it will make us realize that the 
Jews are one people with a common history 
and with common hopes. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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